As my time here at Duke comes to an end – I leave for South Bend, Indiana on December 3, I have been doing a lot of remembering and saying a lot of farewells. The last twelve years at Duke and in North Carolina have been filled with many gifts as well as opportunities for learning, leadership and growth. I am particularly reminded and humbled by the gift of so many rich and deep friendships, reflected in some of the sentiments below:
“Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our spirits have trouble remembering how to fly.”
Farewell card from the Duke Center For Reconciliation Board
“Holy friends challenge the sins we have come to love, affirm the gifts we are afraid to claim and help us dream dreams we otherwise would not dream.”
Greg Jones, Dean Emeritus, Duke Divinity School. Read his essay on friendship in Fatith and Leadership.
“Through unlikely friendships God stretches, expands, and even confuses the sense of who “my people” are, so as to create a ‘new we’ in the world.”
Emmanuel Katongole in farewell sermon at Duke on Nov 13, 2012. Read the sermon, “A New We. On Being Some Kind of Catholic.
You might also want to check out my essay Mission and the Ephesian Moment of World Christianity in the recent issue of Mission Studies in which I note, “The era of World Christianity creates an opportunity for Christians scattered around the world to live into a new Ephesian Moment – new friendshisps and a new sense of communion and ways of belonging that cut across and interrupt the neat geopolitical divisions of our current modes of community.”
With gratitude for your friendship and wishes for a very Happy Thanksgiving.
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